Microsoft announced an update on April 1st, 2026, that extended License Mobility to SQL Server subscription licenses purchased through the Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) program, which makes these licenses eligible for Bring Your Own Licensing (BYOL) in the cloud environments of Authorized Mobility Partners. Prior to this change, SQL Server licenses purchased through CSP did […]
Background When a large consulting customer decided to modernize the database tier of their flagship platform, the scope was ambitious: migrate more than 20 production databases from RDS SQL Server to Amazon Aurora PostgreSQL with Babelfish. The goal was to dramatically reduce costs and support the customer’s ongoing effort to achieve FedRAMP compliance. Evolve Cloud Services led
Migrating on-premises development workloads to the cloud offers many benefits including increased provisioning speed and scalability, improved security, and a potential to reduce cost by only paying for resources when they are being used. While the licensing terms for non-production are rather straightforward on-premises, there are significant differences between the licensing options on Azure versus
Deciding whether to renew Software Assurance (SA) is an important aspect of every Microsoft agreement renewal. As businesses shift on-premises workloads to the cloud, it is important to consider the cloud benefits that SA provides versus the cost of maintaining SA on perpetual licenses. This is especially true for SQL Server, which is eligible for
Based on data from Evolve Cloud Services optimization and licensing assessments, SQL Server 2016 continues to make up over 20% of an organization’s total SQL Server deployment on average. As SQL Server 2016 End of Support (EOS) approaches, it is critical for businesses to explore their EOS options as soon as possible. Early planning will
Microsoft SQL Server powers mission-critical enterprise workloads across countless organizations, but this power comes with expensive enterprise licensing. Companies are increasingly exploring ways to manage these costs, from right-sizing existing workloads to considering open-source alternatives and complete SQL Server migration. In cloud computing, where costs directly correlate with utilization, the first step should always be
In 2024 Microsoft announced that certain customers will be unable to renew their Enterprise Agreements (EA) at expiration. While this change is limited to a small percentage of organizations, it could be indicative of future changes that may have an impact on a broader audience. What did Microsoft Announce? On November 12th, 2024, Microsoft announced:
Microsoft updated to the Service Provider Use Rights (SPUR) to remove the option for service providers to use their own Service Provider License Agreement (SPLA) licenses in Listed Provider environments (AWS, Google Cloud, Alibaba, Azure) after October 1, 2025. Service providers impacted by this change are advised to contact EVOLVE Cloud Services for help optimizing and/or modernizing their cloud deployments.
While often overlooked, the software licensing costs associated with workloads that you move to the cloud are 3 to 4 times the costs of all other cloud operational costs (compute, network & storage). As a result, it’s imperative that you understand the licensing impact, both from a cost optimization and compliance perspective, for any new
We have been seeing more and more customers over the last year either put themselves into a compliance issue or lose their long term licensing flexibility because they do not understand their licensing rules & options regarding Windows Server licensing subscriptions and their use in the Public Cloud. Microsoft made some significant licensing changes that
